Thanks, Mike,

Mike Horvath <mik### [at] gmailcom> wrote:

> I like how in your GIF you can see the list of projects/folders/files on
> the left. But our current Windows editor has lots of other stuff that I
> am  not sure I can live without. For instance, the command line input
> field. The INI drop down list with individual sections. The integration
> of the help file (though this is unfortunately broken in the latest
> POV-Ray version). And so much other stuff.

Yes, the Windows editor has many years of accumulated features that the VS Code
extension hasn't implemented... yet.

Though it isn't conveniently available in the toolbar like in the Windows
editor, the VS Code extension does have the ability to customize the command

Commandline Options). And those custom options can be configured as a general
user setting or specifically for the current workspace.

The ability to select from a list of pre-configured INIs for rendering is a
feature that I can look into adding. I suspect that, in time, many of the other
features can be added as well.

As I see it, one advantage of using VS Code is that the editor itself is
maintained by Microsoft as an open source project and has a huge user base. That
means that Microsoft will take care of implementing all of the standard code
editor features (syntax highlighting, code folding, multi-cursor editing, regex
search and replace, file browsing, copy/paste, tabs, etc). That means that
extension can focus on POV-Ray specific editor stuff instead of having to tackle
all of the standard editor features too. And POv-Ray itself can focus on the SDL
interpreter and rendering engine.

And since the existing POV-Ray Editor isn't available to Mac and Linux users,
the VS Code extension fills that void nicely. It also has an open source MIT
license, so it avoids the licensing issues of the current Windows editor.

That said, I completely agree with your concerns. If you are a productive user
of the existing editor, then there isn't much incentive to switch.

The multi-cursor editing, code snippets, and regex search and replace might
tempt you though. :)

Multi-Cursor editing:

https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/getstarted/tips-and-tricks#_multi-cursor-selection

POV-Ray Code Snippets:

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jmaxwilson/vscode-povray/master/images/vscode-povray-snippets-demo.gif

RegEx Search and Replace:
https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/getstarted/tips-and-tricks#_search-and-modify

J. Max

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